Mission accomplished for Rezne in Noumea

 The notable performance of CNMI swimmer Rezne Wong in last week’s 9th Oceania Swimming Championships in New Caledonia is feather in his cap.

The 21-year-old swimmer joined six races in the five-day competition at the Guy Verlaguet pool in Dumbéa, reset one CNMI national record, and made it to the finals in all of his events. He raced against top swimmers from 13 other nations, including those from powerhouse Australia and New Zealand.

“I wanted to go to the Oceania champs, so that I can race these high-class swimmers. Kenneth To of Australia was in the world championships and is one of the fastest IM’ers in the world, along with Daniel Lester. It was a great experience, as I almost beat Daniel Lester in the prelims in the 200IM, although he would go 6 seconds faster in the finals as he just wanted to make it into the finals and save energy,” Wong said.

“I trained mostly breaststroke this year, which is why my 50m breast and 100m breast times were good ones. I was aiming for a better time in the 200m breast, but that was my fourth swim of the day after the prelims in the 200m IM, 200m breast prelim, and 200m IM final, and I just felt exhausted,” he added.

In the 100m breaststroke, Wong tried to go under 1:07.00, but timed in at 1:07.29, which was still enough to break his own record of 1:07.66 made on Aug. 16, 2011 during the 2011 Summer Universiade in Shenzhen, China.

“I’ll take any best time over nothing. I aimed for better times but this was just one of those meets you just don’t improve that much, it’s part of the sport. You can train hard, but sometimes it will pay off later in time. Every race, however well or poorly swam, adds to experience,” the University of Hawaii-Manoa mainstay said.

Wong is now back on island for the summer break and will return to UH-Manoa in a few months to finish his last year with the Warriors.

“I would like to go finish off my collegiate career with a blast and perhaps even win the conference, MPSF (Mountain Pacific Sports Federation). It would be amazing if I could make it into the NCAA Championships but there is a lot of work that has to be done,” the Marianas High School graduate said.

Besides joining collegiate swimming events, Wong also hopes to compete in his third world championships in Barcelona next year and in the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, representing the Philippines. He can’t join the Olympics, donning the colors of the CNMI, as the Commonwealth is not an Olympic member. However, he can represent the Philippines, as he was born to Filipino parents.

“After that, I’m probably done competitive swimming. I’ve already spent 15 years and counting training, it’s about time I catch up with the rest of normal life,” Wong said.

Meanwhile, Wong thanked the following for making his stint in the Oceania tournament possible: John Hirsh, Hiro Kimura, Tsunami Swimming Center Saipan, and his parents and friends who donated funds for the trip.

“I would also like to thank Bill Sakovich for helping me a great deal with the details of the trip and coaching me. A big shoutout to Ching Maou Wei of American Samoa for being a good teammate during the trip. A big thank you also to Jennifer Buffin and the Hawaii Team (both the Hawaii Team and the University of Hawaii Team) for being great supporters during the meet and for pushing me in practice, thank you too to Mike White, NMASA, and NMSF for nominating me. I greatly appreciate them and I owe the record I broke to them,” Wong said.